Internet Search Techniques

Finding What You Want on the Web Easily, Quickly, and (sort of) Effortlessly…

Presented by: Sharon Coward Overview Objectives: • Understand the Web as a repository of information. • Explore different search tools. • Learn to use the tools appropriately • Evaluate search results. Internet Search Technologies

• Internet = network of computers • The Web = one of the services available via the Internet; interconnected documents & other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs The Web – how big is it?

• : 5 million terabytes = 5 trillion megabytes of data. • Google indexes only 200 terabytes i.e. 0.004% • 2005 – 11.5 billion pages indexable web; doubles in size every 5 yrs. Search Tools

• Search Engines

• Meta-search Engines

• Information Gateways

• Invisible/Deep Web What is a “”?

• 1. A (computer) program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. • Often used to specifically describe systems like Google and Bing that enable users to search for documents on the -- http://www.webopedia.com Search Engines

• Number of pages searched can vary • Good results depend on using proper search syntax not just the scope of the engine’s coverage • Good For: well defined topics to search; looking for specific sites; want a large number of returned for topic; retrieve particular types of documents, eg. Pdf

Not Good For: Browsing through a subject area. Search Engines Search Engine Relationship Meta Search Engines

• Skim-search several search engines at once • Usually reach about 10% of results of each engine they visit • Cannot perform advanced-style searches which use engine- specific syntax • Good For: quick search engine results overview, doing simple searches with 1 or 2 keywords; want a small # relevant results; problems finding what you want; convenient to search different content sources from one page Not Good For: comprehensive results from a complex search Meta-Search Engines

Dogpile - www..com; Metacrawler - ww.metacrawler.com Meta Search Engines

SurfWax – www.surfwax.com Meta Search Engines

• Copernic - http://find.copernic.com Information Gateways

• Subject directories, virtual libraries

• Compiled by people, not robots

• Subject categories

• More focus on sifting for relevance and quality Good For: you have a clear topic but not unique keywords; browse for ideas Not Good For: Quickly finding information from widely varying themes Information Gateways

http://dir.yahoo.com/ Information Gateways

Google Directory - www.google.com/dirhp Information Gateways

• Questia.com - http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp (full text online library >70,000 books)

• ELDIS: the Gateway to Development Information http://www.eldis.org/ (4000 sites)

• Open Learn http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/ (open university course materials)

• Open Directory Project http://www.dmoz.org (largest human edited directory) Invisible/Deep Web

• 91,000 terabytes vs 167 terabytes in surface Web

•Search engines can’t access content – databases, non-text files; password protected areas; dynamic content Invisible/Deep Web

• Dynamic content: - returned in response to a submitted query or accessed only through a form, • Unlinked content: pages which are not linked to by other pages • Private Web: sites that require registration and login (password-protected resources). • Searchable - Entry pages can be found using other search tools; include term ‘database’ in search Good For: Gathering specific kinds of data Not Good For: Browsing through a subject area Invisible/Deep Web Deep Web Expanding

• postings • Comments • Discussions and other communicative activities on social networking sites • Bookmarks and citations stored on sites Invisible/Deep Web

• www.science.gov - over 40 databases, 1,950 selected websites, 200 million pages • http://www.deepwebtech.com/ • http://infomine.ucr.edu/ • http://www.completeplanet.com/ - 70,000+ databases • http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - compiled by humans since 2002 Search Strategies

1. Identify your concepts 2. Make a list of search terms/ keywords for each concept e.g. global warming/ greenhouse effect greenhouse gases/ climate change 3. Specify the logical relationships among your search terms 4. Be specific – golden retriever vs dog Search Strategies Advanced Search Boolean Operators Advanced Techniques

• Use quotation marks “…” to specify exact phrases: “internet marketing” • Use the plus (+) and minus (-) sign to include and exclude words: “internet marketing +” vs “internet marketing –facebook” Advanced Search

• Wildcard (*). Searching for 'looking for *' will return results that have the words 'looking for dogs', 'looking for cats' etc. • Stop words ignored -“a, an,the, and”. Use a + or – symbol to force the engine to include those words in your search. Advanced Search

• ~ Similar Words Search for similar words, or synonyms. Searching search ~tips will return results with 'help', guide', 'tutorial' etc. Advanced Search

• Web page title allintitle:jamaica

• or domain site:barbados.org "beach hotel" Advanced Search Advanced Search

•File type filetype:ppt site:edu “global warming” • Definitions define:pixel define:“due diligence” Advanced Search

• Truncation: Searches on the root of the word adding different word endings or plurals. Educat* searches educator, education, educational, educated. Colo*r would find documents that contain color and colour. Examine Results

Authority: Who owns the site? Credentials? .gov, .edu, .mil, .org usually more reliable than .com Currency: How up-to-date is the information? Check to see if you can tell when the last time the site was updated. Links

• List of search engines: http://thesearchenginelist.com •Search: www.google.com; www.yahoo.com; www.bing.com;www.ask.com • Meta search: www.dogpile.com; www.metacrawler.com; www.clusty.com; http://find.copernic.com; www.surfwax.com; • Directories: http://dir.yahoo.com/; www.google.com/dirhp; www.questia.com/Index.jsp www.eldis.org/; http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/; www.dmoz.org • Deep Web: www.science.gov; www.deepwebtech.com/; http://infomine.ucr.edu/; www.completeplanet.com/; www.stumbleupon.com/ Assignment

• When was the first CTC and where? • Find 5 job vacancies in international organizations based in the Caribbean • Find the top sites in health, entertainment, news and trade in the Caribbean • Find photographs of the earliest Catholic missions to 3 Caribbean countries.